Cowes Week organisers hope to avoid calling off sailing spectacular

Cowes Week organisers are continuing to plan for their August regatta - hoping it will be able to go ahead if coronavirus restrictions are lifted by then.
Cowes Week is one of sailing's annual highlights / Picture: Paul WyethCowes Week is one of sailing's annual highlights / Picture: Paul Wyeth
Cowes Week is one of sailing's annual highlights / Picture: Paul Wyeth

Cowes Week 2020 is scheduled to take place from Saturday August 8 to Saturday August 15. Despite the current restrictions, work is continuing from home on all of the organisational aspects of the week and we remain committed to running the event if at all possible.

Laurence Mead, Regatta Director, said: "We continue to move forward with plans for the event and remain hopeful that by the time we get to mid-August - still four months' away - the necessity to socially distance ourselves will have reduced sufficiently so that we can run some great boat racing in Cowes.

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"We can react quickly to changes in the Government restrictions and guidance, switching on or off various components with the minimum of lead time, and allowing us significant leeway - perhaps until the beginning of July - before we need to make any big decisions.

"The safety of participants and the hundreds of volunteers working behind the scenes is foremost in our minds of course, but providing that we can run an event that complies with all guidance in place at the time, then we fully intend to do so. I suspect there will be a lot of sailors desperate to get boats on the water by August!"

The Notice of Regatta will be issued in the next few days on the Cowes Week website (the Advance Notice of Regatta is already online and there are no changes to that document at this time) and you can register for email updates at https://bit.ly/2xWJR9d

See www.cowesweek.co.uk for more.

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